British Parents Start Saving For Their Child To Leave Home Aged 12

New research by a money saving website in the UK has revealed that the average British parent will start saving for their child leaving home when they are just 12 years old, with a quarter having saved between £1,000 and £2,000.

The majority of parents in the UK are preparing for their children to flee the nest before they’ve even become teenagers, new research by a money saving website in the UK has revealed. The research revealed that of the parents who stated they had already started saving for when their child moves out, 27% had already saved between £1,000 and £2,000, whilst 15% had already saved £5,000 or more.

The research was carried out by www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, a money saving website within the UK. They polled a total of 2,367 respondents, all of whom were parents of at least one child aged between four and 17 years old.

Initially all respondents were asked “Have you given much thought to what will happen when your child moves out?” to which the majority of parents, 79% stated they had begun to plan for their child’s next steps. Of these 79%, almost all parents (98%) admitted that they were concerned their child might never be able to save up for a deposit and own their own home.

Next, researchers asked participants if they had started saving money for their child to have when they move out of the family home, to which 67% stated they had. When asked to reveal how old their child had been when they began saving, the average answer was revealed to be 12.

Relevant participants were asked how much they had saved up for their child so far; they were given options and were asked to provide which one applied to them. The following answers emerged as the top 5:

£1k – £2K – 27%

Less than £1k – 22%

£2k – £3k – 19%

£5k or more – 15%

£3k – £4k – 11%

To further delve into the ways in which parents prepare for their child vacating the premises, respondents were asked if they had done anything else for the child other than saving money. From this it was found that 32% had begun ‘collecting furniture’ for their child, 27% had started researching nice areas to live in and 21% told researchers that they had begun ‘educating them on necessity’s e.g. bills and tax’.

Finally, participants were asked if they had more than one child to which 61% stated they did. These were then asked if they worried that they wouldn’t be able to give their other children as much as they do their oldest to which 93% stated they did.

“Preparing your child so they are ready to move out into the big wide world is incredibly important, although some may say 12 is too young to start preparing for their independence, it’s surely better for them to understand the importance of saving and financially budgeting from a young age. I would say when it comes to money, saving for your child as early as possible is a great idea and a brilliant present for your offspring.”

1 COMMENT

Lol I thought it read that Parents were saving up so their kids could leave home aged 12….man, what kind of wonderful world would that be, that we can get shot BEFORE the teenage angst kicks in!
(Ps to those who wish to crucify me for saying this evil thing, I live with four kids, I’m allowed!!!!) lol